School is on for Veterans Day in Stamford

Maggie Gordon

Updated 8:33 pm, Thursday, November 8, 2012

STAMFORD -- After losing six days to inclement weather in the past two weeks, Superintendent Winifred Hamilton announced Thursday the city school district will hold classes on Monday, a day previously set aside as a holiday in honor of Veterans Day.

"I am pleased to report that all of the school-based employee unions (including our administrators, teachers, paraeducators, school nurses, custodians, secretaries, cafeteria workers, security staff, and bus drivers) have agreed to work on Veterans Day, Monday, November 12th rather than take the day as a holiday as previously scheduled. This will allow Stamford Public Schools to be open for students and staff as a regular school day," Hamilton wrote in a Thursday afternoon statement.

Students were out for 11 days straight, from Oct. 26 through Nov. 6, due to Superstorm Sandy and Election Day. The six inclement weather days used in that time maxed out the four built-in days and knocked off the district's optional 181st day of instruction. The sixth day was set to be pulled from the end of April vacation, but will instead be made up through class on Monday.

"I don't remember when -- and I've had a lot of years -- there's been a situation where there's been so little school in the end of October and beginning of November," Hamilton, who has worked in the district for more than four decades said Thursday. "And then of course we have Thanksgiving is a week away, and in December we go on a 10-day holiday."

Stamford's unions will take a compensation day for working Nov. 12, rather than earning the time-and-a-half pay stipulated in their contracts, which would have cost the district approximately $200,000, pushing school on Monday out of the realm of reason, Hamilton said.

"Between October 29th and November 8th, students in Stamford Public Schools have attended class only two days. This extraordinary situation has forced us to look at any day that we can gain back for instructional time," Hamilton wrote in the release. She also noted that the neighboring school districts in Darien and Greenwich opted for the same plan in an effort to recapture instructional days. Darien also held classes on Election Day.

Hamilton's idea was met with some opposition from local veterans.

On Wednesday, Pat Battinelli, a former Marine who is chairman of the city's Patriotic and Special Events Committee said local veterans were "not willing to give up a day we earned fighting for this country," adding that "there are a dozen days they could take away from the school system that wouldn't make any difference, except for Veterans Day and Memorial Day."

Hamilton said she understands the sensitivity of the issue, writing in her statement that "my responsibility to the students of Stamford obligates me to take the recent loss of instruction very seriously and recapture valuable time in the classroom."

This move means the district has found a place to take each of the six inclement weather days used so far. But it does not guarantee that April vacation will remain intact. Should additional cancellations occur due to weather, the calendar still states they will be taken from the end of April vacation, beginning April 19 and moving backward. That could change in upcoming weeks, should the Board of Education decide to revise the calendar; board members plan to discuss the calendar during committee meetings on Wednesday.

Hamilton stressed this instance will not set a new pattern for the way the holiday is treated in the future.

"This is a one-time occurrence that has happened in light of trying to regain a day," she said Thursday. "I think we've recognized and do feel that this is an opportunity for us to respect and recognize our veterans ... but this is this year, and these are the conditions. It's just unprecedented."